The Danish High Risk and Resilience Study - VIA 11

A national longitudinal study of 522 11-year-old children born to parents with or without a diagnosis of either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Funded by:Innovationsfonden

The Danish High Risk and Resilience Study – VIA 11 (http://via11undersoegelsen.dk/)– is a national longitudinal study of 522 eleven-year old children born to parents with or without a diagnosis of either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. “VIA” is the Latin word for road and describes the overall purpose of the project to investigate the developmental path of children with vulnerabilities.

The dominating hypothesis is that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are neurodevelopmental disorders with significant genetic liabilities influenced by environmental factors already during pregnancy and early life. Approximately 55% of all children born to parents suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder will experience some kind of mental illness during their lifetime. Increasing our knowledge of both the risk and the protective factors associated with psychiatric disorders is important in identifying the most vulnerable children and in guiding the mental health services towards early intervention and health promotion.

To this aim, DRCMR and our partner at the Center for Functional Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University (CfIN) will gather images of the brain using several techniques allowing us to fingerprint clinically well-defined individuals. Our imaging protocol includes anatomical MRI and functional MRI probing cognitive control, social cognition, and the concept of self. These cognitive dimensions are often already affected in early stages of mental illnesses. Additionally, we use EEG to probe more “basic” processes such as error monitoring, perceptual abnormalities, and the integrity of brain networks. This multimodal imaging approach combined with a multidimensional assessment of cognition, physical activity, environment, and genetics, will help differentiate factors that veer children on paths to health or to illness.

The VIA 11 study assesses the same cognitive, social, mood, clinical and behavioural measures as in the first study of the same cohort at age seven (VIA 7). This time, children are also assessed with anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and electroencephalography (EEG). Images and electrophysiological signals will be analyzed according to between-group and within-group differences in volume and integrity of white matter, as well as patterns of activation in fMRI and EEG at an age where the fewest children have developed manifest psychopathological symptoms but might still present with early markers. We hope to next retest the same cohort at age 16.